Posts tagged ‘nature’

it was a sheer coincidence as i stumbled upon an article about the movie. Tsunami the Aftermath is a collaborative output of HBO and BBC, and was aired on HBO in two parts. it gives a good insight on the devastating Tsunami that left more than 200,000 people dead across twelve countries, of which one-third of the victims are believed to be children. this deadliest attack by nature left, god-knows-how-many, people homeless, still struggling to rebuild their lives.

Directed by Bharat Nalluri, an Indian born British director, the movie deals with a series of interweaving stories that took place just after the tsunami hit on the coast of Thailand — a couple who just lost their six-year old daughter; a mother of two children who lost her husband and struggling to save her badly injured son battling for life; a local boy who lost everything that he had, a social worker trying to help people but finding it hard to get through the diplomatic hassles; and two journalists reporting on the event, on the verge of unearthing a grisly conspiracy of land grabbing and gross ignorance.

Moving across the cities and taking abodes in different environment as your job handles you like a pin, pulling out and in of the map at whims, is something that one cant avoid thesedays as the corporate world is crushing all the geographical travesties. so, being a part of the caravan you too sail along. it has its charms. knowing different people, different culture makes you much richer intellectually and enhances one’s adaptiveness to different situations. but it’s not really easy to get adjusted though. you face an uphill task to tune yourself to the local attitude, which is like totally alien to you. it’s important that you know these little tid-bits of the place that you’re moving to. so, i thought of sharing these little pieces out of my living experiences in some of the indian cities. In this write-up, i will discuss Bengalooru (formerly Bangalore), since this is the city that is so close to my heart though i dont live there anymore. In the following series, i will try to zoom-in onto the other cities like hyderabad, kolkata, pune, mumbai, and delhi.

Bangalore, the silicon valley of India has changed so much from the time i first landed there. not going into these much known facts, let’s start with the basic things that one needs to know to make a start; things you must know:

Dont trust the Auto-rickshaws if you are yet to be familiar with the place; most of the guys know hindi/eng but may pretend to communicate in local language to make a killing, if you give an impression that you’re a newcomer. if in doubt, ask people on the road, who speak english. dont let the auto guy converse. you may be tricked. police, in general, is to be avoided except officer ranking personnels, since most of the bottom layers are yet to come in terms with modernisation 🙂 (more…)

The last time we spoke, i remember myself taunting him showing a ‘L’ shaped gesture as i rushed to catch up my bus for hyderabad. he was really good at it, coming up with some poor jokes or flop shows, which we termed as ‘L’ aka Labodh. a few days later, when i was celebrating the diwali with a few pegs of rum at my residence in hyderabad, i was told that his body was lying somewhere in goa…

and today, he is exactly three years away from us, probably awaiting for a judgement at the kingdom of heaven. who cared? and who remembers?
we almost forgot because he doesnt bother to drop a fewlines any more; beacuse he ceased to exist in the present. but that’s the rule and i am too insignificant to challenge the almighty nature. we, the living ones, are too busy to forget things that dont have a mortal impact on our lives. but the irony is, we all will end up lying in that category someday!

so, what if i paused for a while to dig up the memories? nothing better will happen, i know. it’s easy to come up with a few lines that wud remind us of a guy called soumen. but this is not an obituary with some stone-hearted ‘1976 – 2003’ label. right? and i am not gonna tell you about him either. i know, he’s still remembered by a few. the guy who re-phrased his much known nick-name as ‘original juto’, was claimed by a merciless god, who loves to remind us that he ultimately runs the puppet show on his terms..

i remember soumen flashing his smiles all the time, sometimes like a fool running a ‘hee hee’ show.. but that’s how he was; a big hearted small guy who was always there when one needed.

but why i am writing all these? i am not too sure. to find sanctuary by venting out the sorrow of losing such a dear friend or encrypting a rememberance?? perhaps the both. my dear fren, you will always be there with us, we miss you a lot.

Bermuda triangle. perhaps, it’s the most talked about mystery in the world that i grew up reading, mesmerized about the stories, where ships just disappeared, flights gobbled up by some evil tornedos. was there ever a conclusive research? i dont know. saw an interesting BBC documentary on google video the other day. a bit lengthy, but sure worth watching..

This episode investigates the mysterious Bermuda Triangle, that expanse of the Atlantic bounded by Miami, the Bahamas, and Puerto Rico. An … all » area where ships and planes routinely disappear without a trace. An area filed with strange phenomenon, mysterious fogs, mists, erroneous compass readings, strange lights, and time warps. A place where these disappearances date from the time of Christopher Columbus. Believers and skeptics, eyewitness and scientists all give there views and theories on what is going on in that strange part of the Atlantic Ocean.

woke up listening to the rain-drops. there’s this smell so familiar. but i cant remember. a blank inside. and then i remember, it’s Saptami. went to the balcony to feel the cold wind blowing over my face. my mind races back to the sound of those crowded pandals, dhaker awaz, the chants. but here i am, at pune, far far away from all that happenings. and i stared away at the hills distance away, watching the rain, the patch of garden at the backyard, fluttering of birds, smell of flowers – the nature soothed the pain. Felt better. Subho Saptami.